In the event of a nuclear event such as a conventional or “dirty” nuclear weapon occurring in a metropolitan, suburban or rural area, there are two problems that would arise immediately for healthcare providers and first responders. The first problem would be determining the extent of radiation exposure for persons brought to hospitals or being treated by first responders. In the case where there is a large numbers of potential victims and limited healthcare resources, triage becomes essential, but there is currently no way to perform radiation exposure triage absent physical symptoms, and wherein those physical symptoms can be unreliable. The second problem is determining both the geographic extent and exposure level distribution of the radiation event as well as determining an estimate of the number of potential victims in the area effected.
Therefore, there is a need for radiation detection schemes and apparatus and methods of transmitting radiation detection information to networks that address healthcare triage and an estimate of the radiation level and potential victim geographical distributions.